NOMA flack sells Chron critic on CAMH party

One of the slightly corrupting and unfortunate aspects of writing for a daily newspaper and constantly needing to feed that beast is that often once I’ve written about an event it’s dead to me. But I think the process of working on my story on the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s monthly Steel Lounge Underground music-and-art mixer may have sold me on it to the point that I’ll actually have to go. Am I getting soft?

I enjoyed hearing from everyone I contacted for the story, perhaps none more so than Jim Mulvihill, CAMH’s former communications and marketing director who left last year to follow his wife, Miranda Lash (formerly a curatorial assistant at the Menil Collection) to the New Orleans Museum of Art, where she’s the modern and contemporary art curator.

Mulvihill’s a peach, and the kind of p.r. person who tells reporters interesting things whether they directly benefit his employer/client or not. For example, my discovery last year of New Orleans’ resurging art scene was made possible my Mulvihill’s genuine passion for his hometown (he grew up in the Crescent City) and willingness to tell me point blank that merely doing a story on his museum’s remarkable post-Katrina recovery would amount to missing the bigger picture. He opened his New Orleans Rolodex to me, and if I missed a nook or a cranny in the NOLA art scene, that’s on me, not him. (That quality is also endearing in gallery owners/directors, by the way.) Bottom line: he’s earned serious credibility with me, so I take his points about pretty much anything seriously, including the importance of Steel Lounge Underground’s role in CAMH’s outreach. From an e-mail:

I always thought of Steel Lounge Underground as a real extension of the CAMH’s mission. Just like the Museum, it’s always free so there are no barriers to admission. And the quality of the DJs and the music is extremely high, like everything else the museum does. The CAMH has a reputation for excellence, which is why everything they do has to be of a certain caliber. You can’t have the coolest, most important exhibitions in town and have lame parties.

The free admission is so important. A lot of other institutions that do late-night events with DJs or bands charge a pretty hefty admission, but how is that serving the people of your city? As far as I can tell there are already more than enough places in Houston for young professionals to get drunk and flirt. The Steel Lounge Underground scene, by comparison, is truly diverse and where the emphasis is on great music and great art.

The curatorial excellence has always been there, but nowadays the CAMH gets it right as a museum on every possible front: the exhibitions, the parties, the education initiatives, the gift shop, even the hippest gallery attendants.

One last point not to be overlooked–Steel Lounge has always benefitted from the extremely generous pours of David McCreary (spelling?), the bartender. He’s been working CAMH events for more than 30 years and is like an institution of his own. He’s got as many fans as any of the DJs.

Yeah, I think I’m going to have to show up. The July 31 lineup features DJs Sasha Braverman, Henry Chow and Gracie Chavez and the band Spain Colored Orange. It runs from 8-11 p.m. with free admission; cash bar.